Amazon MGM Studios has hired Denis Villeneuve to direct the 007 reboot, and now a new report has revealed how and when he’ll be casting the new star.
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker is currently directing Dune: Part Three and only after he’s wrapped with that project will the next James Bond casting process finally begin.
Meanwhile, many 007 fans will breathe a sigh of relief that the new Bond star will definitely be male and British.
According to Deadline: “Those in the know tell us the ideal approach is to cast ‘an unknown,’ possibly in his late 20s or early 30s, to play what Fleming called ‘a blunt instrument’ — the lethal but “extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.”
Does that mean a non-Caucasian British male could be cast? According to the insiders, it’s certainly possible. But all that matters is if the actor is the right fit for the Bond story Villeneuve and screenwriter Steven Knight are planning to tell. Speaking of which, the latterly mentioned Peaky Blinders creator is expected to go right back to Fleming’s earliest novels to get the most accurate feel for the character.
Deadline added: “There’s a sense from the many conversations I’ve had that Knight’s going back to Bond’s beginnings as a Royal Navy Commander before being recruited by MI6… I want to stress that this is what I’m hearing but to caution that none of this is confirmed or fully formed because the script is still being written and the direction of travel is still up for grabs.” Such origin story rumours fit with the latest official Bond video game, 007 First Light.
What’s certainly without doubt is that the new film will be a total reboot, set in a different universe to the one where Craig’s 007 perished in No Time To Die. As for a release date, the sources believe filming on Bond 26 will not take place until 2027, with an eye on a November 2028 cinematic release date. This would break the record for the biggest ever gap between films in the 007 film franchise, currently at six years between 1989’s Licence to Kill and 1995’s GoldenEye.